Unhealthy eating behavior plays a major, preventable role in many chronic health conditions, such as obesity, which is a leading cause of early morbidity in the United States. Recent research has focused on the influence of social connections on food choice through the enforcement of food-related social norms that motivate healthy eating practices. While this research illuminates the relationship between social connection and the promotion of healthy eating habits, less is known about how lack of social connectedness (i.e. isolation) may influence eating behavior and food choice differently. Just as there are many ways to be socially connected, there are also many ways to be disconnected. One such form of disconnection is the experience of existential isolation, which is characterized by the feeling that one is alone in their experience of the world. Existing research has found that chronic existential isolation is associated with poor mental wellbeing, such as heightened feelings of loneliness, death through accessibility, depression, anxiety, and reduced self-esteem. Yet, the associations existential isolation may have with physical health outcomes or behaviors remain unclear. The present research aims to investigate the links between feelings of existential isolation and self-reported eating behavior and healthy eating intentions. Across two survey studies, undergraduate students reported their trait levels of existential isolation, loneliness, and healthy eating behavior, with Study 1 assessing food quality, calorie content, and portion size planning, while Study 2 focused on intentions to eat healthy in relation to existential isolation. The results revealed significant negative correlations between existential isolation and self-reported healthy eating behavior, food quality planning, caloric intake planning, portion size planning (Study 1), and healthy eating intentions (Study 2). These associations also remained significant even when controlling for individual differences in interpersonal loneliness. The findings offer preliminary evidence of an association between daily feelings of existential isolation and unhealthy eating cognitions, with more existentially isolated individuals reporting less mindful eating behaviors and intentions. These results highlight the potential role that feeling existentially isolated may have on dietary choices, and subsequent long-term health outcomes. Implications of these findings for future research examining the relationship between social connectedness, existential isolation, and long-term health outcomes related to eating cognition will be discussed.

Black maternal mortality is a major issue in the United States. In recent years, the maternal mortality rate for Black women has been around three times the rate for White women. According to some research, this may be because people believe Black people are biologically different and can handle pain on a higher level, or because certain healthcare professionals lack empathy. The current study will examine whether participant’s attitudes toward a Black (vs. White) female giving birth will vary according to pain sensitivity, dehumanization, and other moderating variables (e.g., empathy, social dominance orientation). It is hypothesized that participants who read a scenario of a Black female giving birth will report lower pain sensitivity scores and rate her as being less than human as compared to participants who read a scenario about a White female giving birth. The implications of this study in relation to the well-being of Black women will be further discussed.

Visual working memory (VWM) is a critical cognitive capacity for the processing and manipulation of visual information, supporting tasks such as reading, spatial navigation, and object recognition. Cueing, the process of directing attention towards relevant information before (pre-cue) or after (retro-cue) stimulus presentation, has been shown to enhance object recognition and memory accuracy. This study aims to explore the effects of pre-cueing and retro-cueing on VWM capacity in a virtual reality (VR) environment, which offers a more immersive and ecologically valid setting for such investigations. TCU student participants were tasked with comparing a test stimulus to a sample stimulus based on its identity or location, on trials with pre and retro-cues. Based on previous data collected in the TCU Comparative Cognition Lab, it is anticipated that pre-cueing will result in better performance than retro-cueing. Given the increased ecological validity of virtual reality (VR) compared to 2D tasks, this trend is expected to become even more pronounced. The anticipated results of this study could offer valuable perspectives on how visual working memory operates within virtual reality settings and enhance our comprehension of how cueing influences memory retrieval. These findings may have implications for the development of more effective VR-based training and educational programs, as well as for the design of user interfaces that optimize memory recall in immersive environments.

Throughout the United States, industrial agriculture has created a set of traditional methods used to raise beef cattle. These traditional methods have large adverse effects on the environment as well as profitability. The producer who took part in this case study has been managing a beef cattle operation in North Texas since 1999. This rancher’s non-traditional, holistic land management and business approaches to finishing grass-fed cattle for his custom beef brand are drastically different than traditional methods. This single-case study examines the intersection of profitability and sustainability on a traditional beef cattle operation compared to a holistic non-traditional beef cattle operation. The data collected for this study includes interviews, a review of government documents, historical management documents, soil laboratory reports, and botanical and phenological reports. The findings from this study inform land management practices that boost both economic value and long-term environmental sustainability.

Environmental socio-scientific topics are commonly taught in university courses. Interestingly, researchers, who have utilized climate change as a socio-scientific issue, have identified that following engagement in planned activities, students experienced an increase in content knowledge but could not view themselves as environmental agents of change (Ballantyne et al., 2016; Shepardson et al., 2011; Stevenson et al., 2014). Science literacy for environmental issues is vital. However, if students lack the ability to see themselves as being able to assist or have agency in the mitigation of environmental issues, these problems will persist. Community (citizen) science is an instructional method that falls under the experiential learning umbrella and has been explained as “the engagement of non-professionals in scientific investigations – asking questions, collecting data, or interpreting results” (Miller-Rushing et al., 2012, p. 285). McKinley et al. (2017) advocated that engagement with community science prepares and empowers participants for involvement in policy discussions and decisions and to educate and motivate their communities to participate in conservation. Applying this notion to community science projects centered on environmental issues suggests that students may be more likely to be motivated to engage in environmental action following engagement with community science activities. While there are a few research studies that have utilized community science to study undergraduates' motivations, gains in content knowledge, and interests in science; even fewer studies have been conducted in undergraduate courses to study undergraduates’ self-efficacy for science and environmental action. The participants in this study are science major and non-science major undergraduate students (18 years or older) enrolled in a Ranch Management core curriculum course at a university in the Southern region of the U.S. The primary objectives of this study are to identify the degree to which non-science majoring and science majoring undergraduate students’ self-efficacy for learning and doing science changes after engaging in a community science intervention. Preliminary findings indicate that both groups increased efficacy while differences were found. The findings from this research will contribute to informing educators in science departments about non-science and science majoring undergraduate student experiences with socio-scientific-based community science projects.

Citizen (community) science platforms have become a crucial aspect of involving the public in scientific research. The platform Zooniverse particularly has grown to include a wide range of participants in the scientific community. Though there is a substantial amount of literature surrounding the efficacy of community science platforms, relatively few studies tackle applications in undergraduate education. This study investigates undergraduate student engagement with Zooniverse. Utilizing Zooniverse, participants analyzed the flowering of North Texas prairie species. Primary objectives include documenting the accuracy and speed of student identifications and comparing potential differences between historical botanical specimen images provided by the Botanical Research Institute of Texas and images collected from iNaturalist. These findings will help inform the usage of community science platforms in undergraduate education spaces and more particularly for non-science majors.